New Willits planner shows gusto

The City of Willits has a new associate planner; Karen Gauss began with the city on Dec. 19, 2013. Gauss is shadowing retired City Planner Alan Falleri, who is showing her the ropes as she begins her journey with a new career in a new community.

Before coming to Willits, Gauss was a higher education administrator in Flint, Michigan at the University of Michigan for three years. Gauss later held a similar position in Texas at Texas A&M University for four and a half years. While working full time at Texas A&M, Gauss decided on a career change. She began attending the university while continuing to work full time and received her Masters in Urban Planning in 2012.

Gauss is originally from Milpitas in the Bay Area, but has traveled the world having taught English in France for two years, and later trekking through Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Germany, and Poland on her solo, international travels.

After receiving her second master's degree, her first was received in Michigan in arts and social sciences, Gauss took ten months to travel the world. Along her travels Gauss was able to reconnect with students that had graduated from the universities she had worked at, visiting around 200 cities, and packing, what she and her family figures, was around 25 years worth of vacations in one trip. "It was just a good time to do that. Now that I'm here, I'm kind of done traveling and I'm happy to be in one place," said Gauss.

Willits is Gauss' first planning job. She interviewed in several places and found Willits to be the best fit. "I was not interested in being in a sort of concrete jungle, tract housing, peach and beige, type of a town," said Gauss. Being able to walk or bike to her destinations within the community, a community filled with independent businesses and neighborhoods with character, was exactly what Gauss was looking for. "Willits was a really good fit; it's kind of a funky and creative town," said Gauss.

As a City Planner, Gauss' job is to carry out the visions of the City Council. "They do a lot of goal setting, meetings, a lot of the priorities for the city and their goals, hopes, dreams, plans, come from public input and what the City Council thinks is best for the city and the direction they want to go in. The planner is here to, and staff in general, is where the rubber hits the road, and where those goals get implemented, and we work to make things happen," explained Gauss.

One of Gauss' first tasks in Willits was to write letters, after the closing of Lo Bucks, to different grocery companies to let them know the city has a vacant building ready to be filled with a new grocery store. Gauss has sent out around a dozen letters out that will hopefully drum up interest in the vacant building.

While in Flint, Michigan, a community hit hard during General Motors' financial emergency, Gauss worked closely with the city through the university to help work on rebuilding. "Willits is no where near as bad off as a place like Flint, but Flint is a very good example of some of the problems Willits is facing, with the loss of the timber industry and manufacturing jobs, and then that ripples into your housing situation, local businesses, it just effects everything," said Gauss.

Gauss' main focus is on economic development. She would like to see a monthly community celebration, a street fair similar to Hometown Celebration, to help generate business within the city. Gauss also discussed the possibility of a tax on vacant buildings and lots. Gauss hopes if a tax was to be implemented on these vacancies, owners would be more motivated to fill the empty business or sell to those willing to do so. Gauss worked with Mayor Holly Madrigal on the Mayor's Initiative, helping to map out the list of empty manufacturing spaces and lots in Willits. and Filling the empty businesses promote local shopping and would help combat financial leakage; money leaving the community and never coming back, explained Gauss. "The whole goal is make Willits a nice place and to fill all of the businesses?The more business we have going on in our town the more resources the city has to provide services," said Gauss.